1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a swivel bearing for the door-holding rod of a door holder of a motor vehicle. More particularly, the invention relates to a door holder with a door-holding rod whose one end is supported in a bearing block mounted on a structural door component, door or door column. The door-holding rod is swivelable by means of a hinge pin about an axis extending parallel to the hinge axis of the motor vehicle door. The door-holding rod extends through a holder housing arranged on another structural door component. The holder housing includes braking or holding members which are movable against a spring load perpendicularly to the plane of movement of the door-holding rod. The door-holding rod includes at its free end a limit stop formed by a projection and braking or locking ramps or slopes arranged in front of the limit stop, particularly in the form of bulges or increased thickness portions or the like directed transversely of the plane of movement of the door-holding rod.
2. Description of the Related Art
A door holder must apply very high braking and holding forces which must be transmitted to the swivel bearing of the door-holding rod to the body of the motor vehicle. The high braking and holding forces result from the long lever arm between the door handle and the swivel bearing of a motor vehicle door and, on the one hand, from the increasing rate of motor vehicle doors due to the increased number of units mounted in the door and, on the other hand, from the speed of movement of the motor vehicle door during opening and closing.
A particular difficulty results from the fact that the locking means of the door-holding rod which interact with the braking and holding members in the holder housing have ramp-like stopping and starting tracks on both sides of a defined holding point for braking and holding the motor vehicle door with as little vibration as possible in the not fully opened holding position of the door and for limiting the resistance when the door is moved further into its permitted open end position. The ramp-like tracks ensure that the peak forces occurring during locking of the door in an opening position are reduced. However, when the braking or holding members move away from the ramp-like stopping and starting tracks, the direction of the forces acting in the door holder are suddenly reversed. This results in a quickly changing alternating load on the swivel bearing of the door-holding rod which, when even the smallest tolerances exist in the construction of the bearing, leads to highly undesirable clicking noises when the door is closed or opened. Since door holders for motor vehicle doors are always mass-produced articles and, thus, the manufacture must be relatively inexpensive, it is not possible to realize excessively narrow tolerances in the bearing of the door-holding rod.
In order to reduce the play in the swivel bearing of the door-holding rod as much as possible with inexpensive means, it has been suggested in German Offenlegungsschrift 19 15 751 to form the hinge pin supporting the door-holding rod as a tightening pin with a spring elasticity directed transversely of the bearing axis. However, this very effective measure cannot be utilized in all cases and requires special assembly units for assembling the door holder.
In another proposal for avoiding or reducing the bearing play in the swivel bearing of the door-holding rod, German Offenlegungsschrift 36 30 463 provides to hinge the door-holding rod by means of a rivet or a threaded bolt in a cantilevering manner to a one-arm bearing block and to arrange a spring load, particularly a plate spring, directed coaxially with the swivel bearing axis for removing the play in the swivel bearing. However, this proposal can also not be used in all cases and there is the danger that fatigue of the spring will load to an unsatisfactory operation of the swivel bearing.
It is, therefore, the primary object of the present invention to provide a swivel bearing for the door-holding rod of a door holder which can be manufactured simply and inexpensively and which is particularly not sensitive with respect to maintaining tolerances. In addition, it should be possible to either mount the door holder as a prefabricated component or as a set of components which can be assembled by means of mechanical assembly machines when the final assembly of the motor vehicle doors to the vehicle body takes place.